


A Bad Dream

by starsandgraces



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: F/M, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-21
Updated: 2010-11-21
Packaged: 2017-10-13 07:52:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/134911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starsandgraces/pseuds/starsandgraces
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gaila has nightmares. Hikaru's reflexes aren't quite up to scratch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Bad Dream

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [boosette](http://boosette.livejournal.com/1071799.html)'s [Learn From My Fail](http://boosette.livejournal.com/1071799.html) commentfest. For the prompt: _The person shaking you awake is not the murderer from your dream. Do not punch them in the face._.

The figure has been following her down the elevated streets of the city for what seems like eons. Gaila doesn't know how she knows it's there. Its footsteps make no sound and it casts no shadow. She can't hear it breathing. And yet she _knows_ , the feeling curling in her gut and prickling across her skin like the tense energy that heralds an oncoming thunderstorm.

It's not just following her. It's stalking her.

She drops down onto a lower level, dodging past abandoned market stalls and empty crates. The city is deserted and she is all alone with the thing that never relents in its pursuit. It's getting closer. She starts to run.

Running doesn't help, though. The ground is sticky and unwilling to let her lift her feet, and she stumbles over and over again. No matter how many twists and turns she takes through the streets, she can't seem to lose the figure. Gaila doesn't even know where she is any more. She doesn't recognise any of the buildings and she can't stop to get her bearings, not now.

And then she's at the edge of the city, looking down.

Gaila thinks she might fall. Or maybe she'll be pushed, dropping like a stone into the seas that rage beneath the raised city. She can't swim. She's cornered.

The figure grabs Gaila by the shoulders and _shakes_ her, pushing so close to her that she wants to scream. It doesn't have a face. It doesn't have anything other than a vague suggestion of humanoid shape, but its hands feel real enough.

"What do you want?" she shouts, her voice cracking on the final word.

"Lights," it says from no mouth. Its fingers dig harder into her skin. They press her into the wall, which seems to soften and bend behind her back.

It doesn't make sense.

She plants her fist right in the middle of where its features should be.

"Augh," says the figure, grabbing its nonexistent face.

It doesn't make—she's dreaming.

Gaila wakes abruptly.

" _Auuugh_ ," says Hikaru. His eyes well up with tears that leak slowly down his face as he clutches at his nose.

"You're not a murderer," she gasps. Relief floods through her body, calming her heart rate and cooling her skin.

" _No_ ," he says, muffled, with as much vehemence as he can muster. "That was a dream."

"Gods," she says, blinking the last of the sleep from her eyes and checking the time. It's past 0300. "Hikaru, I'm so sorry—let me see."

"I think you broke it." But he lets Gaila peel his fingers off his face and examine the damage to his nose.

At first, she can't see any damage. Most of that is likely due to the fact that the skin split and Hikaru's bleeding from the bridge of his nose and both nostrils. Under the blood, however, it seems as though he's probably right. When Gaila looks more closely she can see that the angle of his nose is wrong; it bends unpleasantly off to one side and is already beginning to swell.

"I think you're right," Gaila says. She runs her fingers lightly over the cartilage while Hikaru does his best to be manly and not flinch. Definitely broken. She's never going to live this one down.

"Let me guess," Hikaru says after a moment. "You aced advanced hand-to-hand combat in the academy."


End file.
